Enigma Guild (Arc 4)

Warning: contains mention of drugs

Igino took a stack of documents and skimmed through it once before nodding in satisfaction. And then, he picked up the (heavy) stack of documents and placed them in front of Milton.

Milton: ???

"I'm sharing these with you," Igino said with a plain face.

Milton stuttered out a "what?" and came to a realization. Initially, Milton and Igino had divided the workload into two. The more important documents were given to Igino for him to review, while the rest were handled by Milton.

But this--!

His Boss was giving him (Milton) the work that the Boss was supposed to do!

In other words, his workload had just increased!

Milton threw a complex look at his Boss. Well played, Boss... Well played...

Igino ignored the resentful look of his subordinate, crossed his arms, and beckoned for Feng Yongrui to walk closer to him. Feng Yongrui stood in front of the man and looked at him, trying to hide his nervousness.

"So, you said your name is Lucky, right?" Igino spoke, his low voice reverberating throughout the entire room.

"That's right, Wolf of Wolves, Master of Masters, Killer of the Killed," Feng Yongrui replied.

Feng Yongrui could feel two hot burning gazes drill into him when he called Igino by that weird nickname, but he pretended not to notice it.

"Do you want to be my successor?" Igino asked.

Feng Yongrui couldn't hide his shock. B-become his successor? Wasn't he supposed to just be an assassin? But...

Feng Yongrui's head was already doing the mental calculations. If he became the head of the Enigma Guild, he would be able to exert his influence and complete his task more smoothly...

There was no reason to say no to Igino's offer.

"Sure, being your successor sounds good," Feng Yongrui said carefully.

"But... What do you mean?" he asked.

Igino raised an eyebrow and looked at Feng Yongrui as if he was stupid.

"What do you mean by asking that question? Wasn't I clear enough? I want you to be my successor," he said.

Feng Yongrui: "..."

Was this something so casual...? He didn't do anything yet, and now Igino wanted him to be his successor? Was this thanks to the higher ups? No... This was weird.

Sensing Feng Yongrui's silence, Igino frowned in displeasure.

"What? Are you backing out now?"

Feng Yongrui shook his head immediately. "No, no... I'm willing to be your successor..."

"That's good. Then, from now on, I will teach you everything I know, so that one day you can succeed my position. Since you agreed, then you can't back out of this deal. No matter what I tell you to do, no matter how harsh the training is, I expect you to be hardworking and persevere."

Feng Yongrui nodded his head sincerely. Anyway, how hard could it be? No matter how bad it was... he had to endure! After all, he had to complete his mission for this world.

Seeing Feng Yongrui's clear eyes, Igino's mood grew better and he looked pleased.

"Alright, that's a good boy."

***

Feng Yongrui had agreed when Igino told him about becoming his successor, but he didn't realize the gravity of the situation until he was actually brought to the Enigma Guild's headquarters.

For starters, Igino told Milton to introduce the Enigma Guild to Feng Yongrui. Milton was very good at talking, speaking in a calm, composed, and well-structured manner. It was easy for Feng Yongrui to understand his explanation.

The Enigma Guild was actually a guild with a lot of history. The Enigma Guild was founded 150 years ago by a man named Delacroix, who was originally a trained assassin-for-hire.

Delacroix decided to start his own guild because of two reasons. First, he was a charismatic person and attracted a substantial amount of followers, and second, the other guilds at that time were run by corrupt people, usually backed by nobles.

This meant that the working environment in a guild was filled with bribery, racism, oppression, and corruption. Delacroix did not want him and his followers to become subject to those conditions, and when the various guilds at that time saw that he was unwilling to work for them, they became annoyed and wanted to put an end to him.

Delacroix realized that the only way for him and his followers to become stronger and live well was to build their own forces. Thus, he created the Enigma Guild.

At first, the guild was really small. There were only about 100 people in the guild, so they were severely lacking in manpower. The guild focused on the black market or the underworld, where clients would post a wanted notice, and whoever killed the target would get a reward.

The higher the reward, of course, the more people wanted it. Whenever there was a target with an especially large reward, the bigger guilds would send out their best assassins to kill the target and snatch the rewards for themselves.

But, even though the Enigma Guild was still small, it was filled with talented people, and within the few years, the Enigma Guild became famous in the underworld as a guild that would flawlessly and accurately kill the target without leaving any traces.

The Enigma grew and expanded its influence throughout Delacroix's lifetime, making it a medium-sized guild with a steady income and a good reputation in the underworld.

Delacroix had appointed his best friend's son, Seifer, as the next Guild Leader. Seifer was a skilled assassin, but his real talent was in management and business acuity. Becoming a guild that only focused on assassinating would not bring the guild forward.

Seifer wanted Enigma to become something more.

So, he began to slowly engage in business deals, starting from the underworld, of course. He started by making Enigma accept jobs such as escorting goods, and then he had Enigma dabble in the producing and distribution of drugs.

The drug business was actually very profitable, and members of the Enigma Guild were pleased with the profits that the guild received thanks to the drug business. However, Seifer suddenly stopped the Enigma Guild from getting involved in the drug business anymore.

Members of the Enigma Guild were dissatisfied, and they were even more annoyed because Seifer did not give them a clear reason as to why he stopped the drug business.

However, since he had been their leader for a long time and his business acuity was very good, almost all the members trusted his decision. Of course, some members were annoyed and openly provoked Seifer, but people like these were few. Those who did try to rebel were silenced almost immediately.

There were some who speculated that Seifer stopped getting involved in the drug business because his son had gotten addicted to the drugs and died of overdose.

There were also people who speculated that Seifer stopped the drug business because the Enigma guild was getting in conflict with a rival guild who was also involved in the drug business.

Whatever the reason was, Seifer's decision proved to be a correct one. A few years after Seifer made the Enigma Guild withdraw from the drug business, the Imperial Family grew stricter in the prohibition of drug use.

Several guilds were found out to be selling, using, and distributing drugs, and those guilds were disbanded, its members were put into prison, and some were even executed. By this time everyone was grateful that Seifer had pulled them out of the drug business in time, so no one disagreed or opposed him anymore.

Seifer continued to expand Enigma Guild's influence, engaging in the underworld's selling and buying of weapons. They also smuggled goods such as salt and wine, selling them in the underworld.

(Certain goods, such as salt and alcoholic drinks, weren't actually banned in the kingdom. The problem was that the tax for these items were extremely high, and those who sold these items had to have a permit. So rather than buying these items through the normal channels, some people preferred to sell and buy these goods from the underworld).

When Seifer was getting older, he passed on the position of Guild Leader to one of the younger members of the guild, a person named Quintus Onyx. Quintus had been brimming with potential since the first time he entered the guild, and Seifer had been training him to be his successor from an early age.

Quintus' business acuity was actually average, but his assassinating skills were top notch and he was crafty. He was the type of person who could negotiate with you for only 10 minutes and yet take most of your money.

Compared to the other guild leaders, Quintus' time as the Guild Leader was considered very short, because he suddenly died of sickness in his mid forties. During his time as the Guild Leader, he had established a business deal with two large clients, the Duke of the north and the Duke of the East.

Quintus was able to secure these two nobles as his business partners because he made the Enigma Guild undergo whitewashing. He wanted the Enigma Guild to not only have a name in the underworld, he wanted the Enigma Guild to start operating in broad daylight as well.

He wanted the Enigma Guild to have connections with nobles so that if the Enigma Guild came into a crisis, they would not be alone. The nobles and various stakeholders who were involved in the Enigma Guild would have to help them if something bad happened.

Because of this, added with his great negotiating skills, Quintus managed to convince the Duke of the North and the East to work with him.

Quintus' health was already failing by the time he was in his late thirties, so he hurriedly chose a successor, and that person was none other than Igino Wolf. Because of Quintus' early death, Igino became the youngest Guild Leader in Enigma's history.

***

Note:

The author does not promote the illegal distribution and use of drugs.